Bike Forums - Road Test/Bike Review (1986) KUWAHARA Adventurer tandem

Thanks SpeedofLite for sharing the scan.

I like John Derven, but he wrote some dumb things sometimes.

Being surprised that the cheaper, heavier frame is still "adequately stiff" ? Does he not know that the modulus of elasticity of steel is (nearly) a constant? If you keep the same diameter and add wall thickness (as they did on this bike), the stiffness can only go up, regardless of what alloy or heat-treatment you're using on the (2 pounds!) lighter frame. This is not controversial; it's been well-established for a couple hundred years. The frame of the circa 1990 steel Davidson tandem Laurie and I ride is less than half the weight of this Kuwahara, yet the stiffness is way better than "adequate". We've won sprints on it, including the crit at the Burley Duet Classic stage race, and we've toured with full panniers, never wished for any more stiffness. If I were to do it over, I might design it with a little more give. Stiff frames are for people who don't know how to pedal!

I also got a laugh at Ed Philipp saying he was plant manager at Santana. Maybe he was in charge of watering the plants? Dave Archambault (I might be butchering the name) was the boss the whole time Ed worked there, but Ed always acted like he thought he should be the boss. He was not a bad person, but was much less easy to like than Dave, who was a super cool boss. Ed was pushy and more than a bit off-putting. I wasn't the only one there who didn't get along with him smoothly. I was just an apprentice framebuilder when I started, and I'm grateful to Ed for all he taught me, but Dave taught me just as much if not more, without all the attitude. When Ed left (and took all Santana's designs with him) to go to Kuwahara, there were some who were, um, OK with him leaving, even if it was to go compete with us.

One more nit to pick (man I'm being grouchy today): they talk about building a triple, and they mean a three-seater. Those are called triplets. A triple is a crank with three chainrings. Cohen, Philipp and Derven all should have known better. Let's all remain vigilant on the proper use of jargon, lest civilization devolve into barbarity.

Mark B, the language Nazi.